Growing up in North Delta I remember finding those renegade skate ponds, full of tall, dead grass poking out from the ice. We would skate for hours, our blades becoming weaker and duller, like the sunset. I know, sounds cliche, but it really was like that. The end of a frozen day.
We scuttled home with our skates flung across our shoulders, laces tied at the ends like pretty bows, the skate blades jostled and stabbed our chests as we ran home for dinner in cautious steps. The street lights flickered like mosquitoes caught in bug repellent lamp, snapping off and on. The wind forces us onward, biting at our ears, crispy notes whirring past our faces.
The roads are slippery as we heave ourselves in sliding motions, our feet so cold we don't notice the pebbles and debris that have built up within the icy layers, dirty sandpaper created by days and nights of unsettled weather. The skyline blends in water colors of purple and orange and dusty shades of blue and the sun is melting away into twilight as we approach our sleepy street.
Our hands are cold despite the woolen mittens encrusted in dirty ice chips, crumpets of who knows what, yet we thirst for it. We bite them off our mittens, bit by bit and suck away the day's worth of play, moistening our lips, crunch by crunch.
It has been a satisfying day in North Delta.
We kick off our boots at the front door. Our socks are heavy wet, soaked in hockey combat and thin ice survival tactics. My sister's feet are purple, my brother's feet have already reached the kitchen and are poised for pork chops. The muffled coats and long johns are strewn into a pile of laundry at the bottom of the stairs and puddles of water have already formed in the foyer.
We are slowly regaining feeling in our fingers and toes. Our faces now burn in painful thaw. The remains of the icy wind now bridled behind the door, banging against it, urging us to come back outside where we belong. But as each minute passed it's cries softened and weakened, the furnace hummed defiantly until the frozen day was no more.
